Enas Abdel Dayem to launch CIBF today

CAIRO – 26 January 2018: The 49th annual Cairo International Book Fair will be launched today with 27 countries, including 17 Arab countries and 10 foreign countries participating in the fair, which will run from January 27 to February 10.

The late veteran writer Abdel Rahaman el-Sharakawy was chosen to be the fair’s “person of the year” because of his work on the renewal of religious discourse as well as his renowned theatrical writing.

The minister of culture Enas Abdel Dayem, the minister of antiquities Khaled Anany , the minister of communications and information technology Yasser el-Kady and the minister of military production Mohamed el-Assar will launch this year’s edition of the fair today.

The Ministry of Education will coordinate the first week of the second semester in tandem with the book fair’s second week as a “Reading Week”.

“The books industry in Egypt is the core of its soft powers, because it is the origin of all kinds of art,” Egyptian publisher Adel el-Masry stated during the press conference held on January 10 to announce all the 49th edition details.

The art camp of this edition will bear the name of the late great Egyptian artist Shadia. The 49th edition poster was designed by the book fair’s permanent committee in collaboration with the Egyptian Fine Arts Sector.

Farid Dahman, the deputy Algerian ambassador previously announced that about 10 percent of the participating publishing houses are Algerian. Algeria has been chosen as a guest of honor in this year’s fair, after Egypt was chosen as guest of honor for a similar fair in Algeria last year.

El-Hag previously announced that the number of publishing houses participating in the Cairo International Book Fair has significantly increased this year in comparison to last year.

“The increase in publishing houses’ participation in the 49th edition is 120 percent in comparison to last year,” el-Hag stated.

El-Hag added that about 144 new publishing houses are participating in the book fair this year for the first time. “The Fair’s Authority suggested launching a second round of the book fair in October.

From our side as the Egyptian General Authority for Books, we are ready to cooperate in the launching of any book fair. We are currently discussing this proposal,” el-Hag said.

The 49th edition will host a berth of new activities for the first time, such as theater events, cinema halls and fine arts halls, in addition to increasing the number of books dedicated to children.

Al Azhar will also take part in the fair for the second year running. Its participation aims to communicate with all society to inform them on efforts to achieve peace and combat extremism and terrorism and also to brief them on the issue of Jerusalem.